Chem 127 Monday1 Nov

 

Exams – graded Wed

Web site, updated this morning

Paper and topic selection (add topics this afternoon)

 

Topic – Kinetics or the Rate of Reactions chapter

Problems from end of chapter (post today) Friday’s lab Work

Summary – focus on the rate at which reactions occur

   For now, only in homogeneous (uniform) mixtures

   Express rate as {change in concentration) / {time}

   A convenient reference is half life

*time for half of the reactant to vanish

   (if several species, probably the limiting reagent)

       Can vary from nanosec to millions of years

   rate usually depends on one or more of these

* temperature (all reactions faster hot than cold)

*old friend, plot of ln (rate) vs 1/T(K)

* concentration of one or more reactants

*may surprise you – rate could be independent

*role of catalyst (faster, but not a reactant)

* rarely, concentration of product

* rarely, inhibited by another species

___________

 

Let’s Ignore Temperature for now

until stated otherwise, temperature is kept the same

 

many reactions follow a simple form ...

 

Rate = (k) * [reactant n]' an n-th order reaction

k is a constant, the rate constant for this reaction

 

or Rate = k * [reactant A]a * [species B]b ...

seldom more than two terms, rarely more than 3

reaction is a-th order in A and b-th order in B

[Species] could be reactant or catalyst

 

The rate and the rate constant are always treated as positive values.

 

Simplest case is a true zero-th order reaction

Rate of the reaction doesn’t depend on concentration

At least over a very wide concentration range – obviously no reactant – - no reaction

Pretty simple – rate stays constant

whatever change occurs in first second, minute

same in any following sec, minute

plot of [A] vs. time is straight line

down if A= reactant

up if A = product

of course, stopping when we run out of reactant

 

Why zeroth order?

___________

 

Simplest explanation – some other factor fixes the rate

In Friday’s lab – cyanotype or blue print

amount of blue proportional to

a. time of exposure

b. intensity (and location) of light source but virtually independent on how much is left

 

The electroforming we tried – Cu" – - > Cu metal

rate is independent of [Cu"]

Proportional to electrical current

 

Many biological reactions (metabolism)

rate is independent of the material that reacts

enzyme reactions – they do depend on amount of

enzyme, so not true zeroth order...

 but we might measure reaction without identifying enzyme’s role.

 

Simple test – Plot [Reactant] vs time

If straight line, it’s zeroth order

But plot needs to extend beyond 1 half life

(gentle curve looks like straight line in any short segment)

Slope is the rate constant

(In this case, works just as well to plot [Product] )

 

Another test – Prepare several reaction mixtures

measure how much reacts over a short period of time

usually <10% of a half life

if rate is unchanged, it’s zeroth order in (that) reactant

___________

 

More Common is First Order Reaction

Rate = k [ Reactant]

 

here there’s either one reactant

or reaction is zeroth order in other reactants

 

Clearly as the reaction proceeds

[A] decreases and Rate decreases

 

Simple test –

plot of [A] vs time shows typical form (exponential)

but that’s hard to confirm visually

Plot of 1n [A] vs time shows a straight line

slope is the rate constant (negative slope, positive k)

again, usually need to plot beyond 1 half life

notice – doesn’t work with [product]

In lab work, it’s often easier to measure product need to use chemical equation

compute the remaining reactant

 

Another very useful rule and test

T 1/2 is time for conc. of A to drop to 1/2 [Ao]

in same time, it will go from 1/2 [Ao] to 1/4 [Ao]

no other reaction follows that pattern

after n (T 1/2) periods we have

½, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128

(1/2)10 is useful (1/2)'º = 1/1024 or about 1/1000

 

Can Also use Initial Rate as,a test

___________

prepare mixtures of different concentrations of A

let about 5% react

measure [A] before and after

compute rate delta[A] / delta-time

for first order reaction, this rate is proportional to conc

double [A] and rate doubles

cut [A] in half, reaction is half as fast

any other conditions (temp, conc of others) held constant

why the 5% rule?

*since the rate changes as [A] is used, the reaction

does not have a single rate

*however, over first 5%, that effect is small (<5%)

*why not first 0.1%? (works, but might not be as

easy to measure the change in concentration)

 

 

Let’s look at a common biological problem

Glucose+ 02 – – > (products)

very slow unless (a) concentrated NaOH <blue bottle demo>

(b) enzyme present (glueose oxidase)

Rate = k [Glucose]' [02]? [enzyme]'

we can use the rate of reaction

to measure blood (or urine) glucose level

(diabetics need to monitor this)

first... [O2] is very constant if equilibrium with air

and [O2] decreases very little due to this reaction

We can provide a constant enzyme concentration in test supplies

usually bound to a solid (test strip or testing electrode)

notice that [enzyme] does not vary during reaction (catalyst)

So reaction is First order in glucose (everything else is controlled)

___________ __ But how do you measure [gluocse] to determine the rate and if you can determine the glucose, why bother with rate?

 

In this case [glucose] + 02 + (enzyme) – > prodcut + H2O2

there’s a very good electrode for measuring the H2O2

teststrips, use H2O2 as bleach

mix with a dye, and match the rate of color loss

 

One important general principle

laws based on plots (amounts remaining over time)

need to treat enzyme differently

initial rate method

finds the order with respect to enzymes easily

 

(where Mon lecture actually stopped)

Second order reactions

rate = k [A]‘

plot of 1/[A] vs. time is straight line

¿slope¿ is rate constant again, over 1-3 half lives

 

Half life rule is different (useful)

half vanishes in t>¿¿

it takes twice as long to go from % [Ao) to 1/4 [Ao]

it takes four time that interval to go from '/4 to 1/8 [Ao]

 

The initial rate method works well

make test runs with varying [A],

if second order, rate 4x faster if you double [A]

again, 5% rule

 

This also works in a different but common case (but not universal)

reaction is first order in [A] and [B)

reaction is 1:1

start with [Ao] = [Bo]

___________